Roberto Alvarez

Roberto Alvarez is a systems-thinker and doer who has been working at the intersections of technology, business and policy for more than 25 years. A native from Brazil, he has worked and implemented projects with partners in the Americas, Africa, Europe, MENA, Oceania and Asia throughout his career.

He serves as the Executive Director of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils (GFCC), a global multi-stakeholder organization with a footprint in 34 nations, and is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Queen Mary University London’s Global Policy Institute (GPI).

Roberto also is a Venture Partner at NYC-based Seldor Capital, one of the first space-tech VCs worldwide helping in the transformation of state-of-the-art technologies into high impact businesses. He is an Industry 4.0 advisor to Bossa Nova Investments, the most active micro-VC company in LatAm, and the Founder of AVentures, an early-stage investment company based out of Brazil.

Previously, he was a senior manager and led innovation, internationalization, and industrial development portfolios at the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI). He also worked as a management and operations consultant (with a focus on manufacturing and logistics), co-founded 3 tech companies, designed and implemented grad programs and taught graduated courses in different Brazilian universities. He is an author and/or organizer of publications on innovation, industrial development and manufacturing strategy and operations. During his period in consultancy, he managed projects in industries such as automotive, energy, building materials, government administration and higher education.

Roberto holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the Graduate School of Engineering (COPPE) of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, was trained in Quality and Productivity at the Japan Productivity Center and Exponential Technologies and the NASA AMES-based Singularity University. He is a global speaker and has appeared in the media in many countries.